When we had our dueling pork meal, even with eight people around the table there were leftovers, of course. The first round I mentioned in the post, but there were plenty more. So one evening Jackie and I had patties, or kotlety, or rissoles – or, as my mother used to call them, coquettes (how racy, had she but known). To make them, I chopped up the rest of the Ibérico pork and some of the Flying Pigs roast, mixed it with cooked (and cooled) onion, eggs, breadcrumbs and chopped dill, formed patties, breaded them and got them crisp and hot in clarified butter. Mushroom sauce (sautéed mushrooms, milk and cream, pureed then finished with lemon juice) on the side. They were deliciously porky.

But wait, there were still more leftovers. And these became a stuffing for not-entirely-classic tortellini. The traditional Emilia-Romagna filling is made of some variation on cooked pork and capon or turkey, prosciutto, mortadella and parmesan, seasoned with nutmeg. It is quite a dry mixture, which makes it easy to form and keep the tortellini. For my variation, I used the remaining Flying Pigs roast pork loin (including all its fat), a chunk of prosciutto and some parmesan, all run through the food processor along with a little rosemary, and seasoned with ground fennel seed and black pepper. These flavors echoed the original seasoning of the roast; there was no point in fighting flavors that were already there in the name of some notion of authenticity that was already out the window.

I typically walk to the market every day for groceries, but ever since I pulled my Achilles I’ve had to do a lot more cooking on the fly.

The other day I limped to the fridge to figure something out for lunch. I found some leftover rice, a couple of eggs, blanched green beans, and sautéed mushrooms. I could have made an omelet and reheated the rice in the microwave, but fried rice came to mind.

A lot of people only eat squid if it’s deep-fried. Here it’s stir-fried, which means that it’s quick, it’s easy, and it won’t make your kitchen too hot for too long. Adapted from How to Cook Everything.

Squid with Chiles and Greens

Makes: 4 servings

Time: 20 minutes

Squid cooks so fast and freezes so well that this dish can easily become a pantry staple for weeknights. As with most stir-fries, just about all the ingredients can be varied. Serve with sticky rice.

1 chopped jalapeño or other fresh chile, or to taste, or several dried hot chiles

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

Salt

1. Separate the squids’ tentacles from their bodies if that has not been done; slice the bodies into rings; cut the tentacles in half if they’re large. Rinse well and drain while you prepare the other ingredients. Strip the greens’ leaves from the stems and discard any stems thicker than 1/8 inch. Chop, rinse, and dry; you want 2 to 3 cups.

2. Put the oil in a large skillet over high heat. When hot, add the chile and the garlic and stir for about 15 seconds. Add the greens and cook, stirring almost constantly, until they wilt, about 2 minutes. Add the squid and a large pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the squid becomes opaque and its liquid moistens the greens, about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning and serve immediately.

The garden has been behaving so strangely this year that we actually ate the last blackberry before the first tomato. Let me tell you: plucking that final berry was a big bummer.

I usually roll with the ebb and flow of the seasons and never get too attached to any one crop. But without tomatoes to pick up the slack a juiciness vacuum suddenly loomed large. I looked down at the handful of motley berries in my colander and made one last pass through the patch, lifting branches, looking for one more that might have eluded my glance. Funny how wacky weather makes you pay more attention to every bite.

Pop-Tart sushi (crushed Pop-Tarts wrapped in fruit roll) from the just-opened Pop-Tarts World in Times Square (the place was packed). In a moment of sugar-induced delerium I may have uttered the words, “well balanced” (because of the slight tartness of the pulverized strawberry(?) Pop-Tarts). Then my senses returned and told me “this #$!% has got to stop.”

Staff lunch from No. 7 Sub in Manhattan: General Tso’s Tofu with seaweed and pickles, Eggplant Parm with fontina, yellow squash, pickled jalapenos and BBQ potato chips (on the sub), Zucchini Cubano with smoked gouda, peaches and pickled daikon, and an fBLT (the “f” stands for fake, presumably), with soy bacon, lettuce, green and red tomatoes. We love the innovative vegetarian sandwiches (they make meaty subs as well). Some are better than others: the seaweed on the fried General Tso’s Tofu is a knockout, the BBQ potato chips on the Eggplant Parm are a nice, crunchy touch, the soy bacon… not that good. Either way, we’re happy to get a break from mozzarella with roasted red peppers.

Recently my wife and I spent a week in Sonoma County exploring restaurants, inns, and wineries, and came across a dish of grilled corn with a roasted garlic and butter puree at Jackson’s Bar and Oven in Santa Rosa. It occurred to me that the combination would be great with pasta; here’s my adaptation:

Last week, the Senate unanimously passed the Child Nutrition Reauthorization, a bill that would do just about everything to improve the school lunch program – except fund it. This is no small exception, considering that a tiny percentage of schools are currently able to follow the USDA’s nutrition regulations. How will they be able to comply with improved regulations with only six additional cents per lunch? And, although it passed in the Senate, the bill may still die on the House floor because some in Congress think even six cents is too much.

The school lunch debate has devolved entirely into a fight over the budget, and a rather disingenuous one at that. If members of Congress truly need to cut the budget somewhere in order to adequately fund healthy school lunches, they need not look further than the Pentagon. Representatives and Senators so love to fund weapons programs that provide jobs in their districts that they continue purchasing fighter jets even after the Pentagon begs them not to. (For example, the C-17, the F-35 engine, and the F-22.)